There is the changing landscape of legal services of course, which now offers many an alternative basis for the engagement of legal professions, such as the "virtual firm", Alternative Business Structures, but historically legal recruitment pages have consistently advertised contract and interim roles. They can be advertised as fixed term contracts for 6 months or a year for example, or with a pro rata annual salary for less certain timescales, or even hourly rates. It will be interesting to see how much of this market (for the individual lawyer looking for contract work) has been gathered up by new-style legal service providers. Major legal recruiters will have dedicated personnel for temporary and contract work, and they can probably tell you.

Also see 'Contract work: Legal Process Outsourcing' and 'Contract work: the "virtual" law firm.'